US GP: Team Roberts Saturday notes

KURTIS ROBERTS PUTS NEW BIKE THROUGH ITS PACES
Kurtis Roberts, riding in only sixth MotoGP event since returning
mid-season, qualified 18th for his home grand prix at Mazda Raceway
Laguna Seca on a motorcycle that didn't exist only days ...

KURTIS ROBERTS PUTS NEW BIKE THROUGH ITS PACES

Kurtis Roberts, riding in only sixth MotoGP event since returning
mid-season, qualified 18th for his home grand prix at Mazda Raceway
Laguna Seca on a motorcycle that didn't exist only days earlier.

The motorcycle chassis and other critical pieces were brought to Monterey
from the team's headquarters in Banbury, Oxforshire as checked luggage on
Wednesday. The construction of the motorcycle went smoothly and Kurtis
was able to get straight to work when practice began at the scenic course
in the hills of Monterey on Friday morning.

With only three hours on the new Honda-powered KR212V prior to
qualifying, Kurtis was able to set his best time of the weekend, a lap of
1:23.662 mins. The lap time was only 1.370 seconds off pole position,
further proof of the competitiveness of the MotoGP class.

Roberts was involved in an incident with his friend Marco Melandri
(Gresini Honda) early in the session. Melandri clipped Roberts' boot
exiting turn two and tumbled into the gravel. Though he was transported
by ambulance back to the pits, he was mostly unhurt and able to
continue. He later returned to the track and qualified 10th.

Today's qualifying session was run in warm sunshine, with more of the
same expected for tomorrow's race, the 11th round of the MotoGP World
Championship.

KURTIS ROBERTS - 18th Position, 1:23.662

The bike's a lot better. It turns a lot better. It finishes the corner
off better. Before it would enter like normal, like all of them do, but
once you got it over on your side, it just kept pushing out, it just kept
going straight. Where now it just turns in. It was a lot better than it
has been so far. We're 1.3 seconds off and you're 18th, it shows you how
tight and how competitive and how good everything has to be to be up
there. As far as tires, we were going alright, but with the race tires we
got up to 14th or something. Put the qualifiers in and it's
just trying to get from point A to point B as fast as it can and it's
just those couple ticks that are slowing us down right now. Now it's down
to picking race tires and at this moment it is going to be a tough
choice.

KENNY ROBERTS - TEAM PRINCIPAL

That's a new bike. Showed up Wednesday, put it all together, everything
fit, and we've been on it ever since. We're struggling a little bit, but
we're getting closer. This afternoon we went back to closer to where we
were yesterday. I think he's alright with all of that. We're having
trouble deciding which tires are better than the other ones. We struggled
this morning with front grip. We've sort of got that sorted out. So I
think we've got a fairly decent race combination. Depends on the
racetrack. If the racetrack gets a little more running on it it'll
start coming to us. Now, it's a bit too far away.